University of Nebraska 



REPORT 



TO THE GOVERNOR 



BY 



Regents Coupland and Haller. 




Laid Before the Legislature at il 
thirty-second Session, 1911 



JA^n;AaY i, 1911 

Print K.u by teh UHiYBRh.Tv 

Lincoln 



tjibvii^ks, W>i' 



The University of Nebraska 

REPORT 

TO THE GOVERNOR 

BY 

Regents Coupland and Haller. 




Laid Before the Legislature at its 
Thirty-second Session, 1911 



January 1, 1911 

Printed by thb Univkrsity 

Lincoln 



l^ 



^u 



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D. OF D. 
JUL 23 1913 



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In presenting for your consideration the following report 
and conclusions contained therein, we wish to say that so far as 
the Board of Regents is concerned, it is and has been in perfect 
accord as to the desire and effort to conduct the management of 
the University so that its usefulness to the state should be of the 
highest order, and that in the discussions and judgments of the 
different members of the Board as to what the policy of the state 
ought to be as to the University's future development, it is a 
candid and frank division of opinion. 

Our personal desire is that the different colleges should grow up 
as strong units, making a consolidated institution of higher learn- 
ing, which for all time will do the most effective service for the 
state. 

George Coupland. 
F. L. Haller. 



To his Excellency the Governor, the Honorable Ashton C, Shallen- 

herger, and the Honorable Members of the Senate and the 

House of Representatives of Nebraska: 

As provided by law, it is the duty of the Board of Regents 
of the State University to present at each legislative biennium 
a report of the University's present condition and what is con- 
sidered by the Board to be the future needs for its maintenance 
and development. Such a report has been prepared and made 
in accordance with law. To the major portion of this report we 
most heartily consent, knowing as we do that the University's 
educational standards are high and that its finances have been 
carefully and economically administered. But to that portion 
of the report, the suggestions and conclusions contained therein, 
which particularly refer to the future policy that should govern 
the development of what is known as the down-town campus 
and the Agricultural College located at the State Farm, we most 
earnestly and seriously dissent, believing it to be our duty, as 
the servants of the people of this state, to present to you and 
through you to the representatives of the taxpayers of the state, 
the grounds of our objections. Unusual and unprecedented 
though this course may be, we feel sure that both you and they 
will give our objections careful and considerate attention. 
First: 

We believe it would be a very great waste of public 
money to develop two distinct plants, which must necessarily 
be done if the imperative needs of the present institution and the 
Agricultural College are to be met. It is impossible to avoid 
this if such a policy obtains and it will without doubt entail an 
increasing and unnecessary tax upon the revenues of the state. 
Second: 

We are absolutely and unqualifiedly of the opinion that a 
separation of the Agricultural College from the Colleges of Arts 
and Sciences would, from an educational standpoint, be a most 
serious mistake, segregating as it would the Agricultural College 
student from the larger university life which is his educational 
privilege and heritage. 
Third: 

Unless absolute duplications of those departments of the 
Colleges of Arts and Sciences which the Agricultural College 
student must be associated with, are built and maintained at 



the State Farm, should the present poHcy be continued, a very 
considerable portion of the Agricultural College student's time 
would be wasted, since he would be compelled to spend in travel- 
ing between the two campuses at least one hour each day, on 
an average of four days each week, making during his college life 
a loss in all of sixty-four days of eight hours length. At the 
present time there are in the Agricultural College two hundred 
students, who, under present conditions, will spend in traveling 
to and fro between the two campuses during their college life, 
twelve thousand eight hundred days and the money expenses 
which are incidental thereto. 
Fourth: 

The same thing is true in regard to the young women students 
in the Teachers College and the Colleges of Arts and Sciences 
who are taking a course in Domestic Science, they having to 
make the trip from the down-town campus to the State Farm, 
where that department is located. There are now one hundred 
seventy-five of these students, and this number will in four years 
spend five thousand six hundred days in travel made necessary 
by the separation of plants. The head of this department in- 
forms us that owing to inadequate facihties, no more students 
can be taken in, which of course means its enlargement at the 
State Farm or its duplication at the down-town campus. During 
recent years the great importance of this department has been 
recognized, and we feel certain that the number of young women 
wishing to take this course will greatly increase. That these 
young people should be called upon to make this trip, made 
necessary by the separation of plants, and especially during the 
cold and inclement season of the year, w^e feel is absolutely waste- 
ful of their time and money and detrimental to their best in- 
terests. 
Fifth: 

Recognizing, as we do, that the basic industry of Nebraska 
is purely agricultural, and that the problems pertaining to the 
land and rural life are among the most important that the state 
and nation has to solve, we realize how necessary it is that our 
state should seek to provide the very best means and opportunity 
for the education of the young men and women who expect to 
return to the soil. We feel that these students are entitled to enjoy 
the privileges of a consolidated institution, and not be compelled 
to waste so large a portion of their valuable time, which is, under 
present conditions, a most serious handicap to the growth of the 



Agricultural College. Upon the authority of those who are in 
a position to know we believe it is a fact that today, if conditions 
were as favorable to the agricultural student as they are to the 
students in the other colleges of the University, there would be 
a very much larger number taking this course than there are now. 
Sixth: 

The natural affiliation of the different colleges, whose students 
intermingle in the same class rooms and laboratories, are the 
Arts, Sciences, Teachers, Graduate, and Agricultural Colleges; 
and in this connection is included the School of Fine Arts and 
the Summer School. In these departments we have a total of 
two thousand and eighty-eight students. At the present time 
there is a demand for buildings, both recitational and laboratory, 
in connection with these departments. Unless a consolidation 
scheme on one campus is brought about, there is no escape from 
a duplication of buildings, administrative force, faculty, and 
operation necessary to do the work required. 
Seventh : 

We have at the present time in the College of Engineering, 
four hundred thirty-five students, in the College of Law one 
hundred ninety- two, and in the Colleges of Medicine and Phar- 
macy one hundred ninety-four. To house the College of Engin- 
eering, a modern building has been erected and equipped on the 
down-town campus. The question arises that if a consolidation 
of the colleges named in paragraph six takes place, what would 
be the best thing to do with these engineering students? We 
are of the opinion that they, together with all the undergraduate 
stud^its of all the colleges named in paragi'aph six, are entitled 
to the larger life of a consolidated institution, and we hope that 
the time is not far distant when they will enjoy it; but during 
a transition period, these students could occupy their present 
buildings at a minimum administrative and operative cost until 
such timxC as buildings could be erected at the State Farm to 
house Mechanical and Electrical Engineering; and in this re- 
gard we are reminded that only recently the Dean of this College, 
in presenting the needs of his department, stated that the Elec- 
trical Engineering Department was in urgent need of a new 
building and equipment and that the cost would approximate a 
large sum; and in this connection we are reminded that the Agri- 
cultural College student must have opportunities for securing 
education along mechanical and electrical lines. That the 
demands of modern agriculture make this absolutely necessary, 



and that in the development of the Agricultural College, Engin- 
eering must be considered; also that one of the buildings now 
being asked for, to be built at the .State Farm, is in connection 
with the Department of Agricultural Engineering; all these are ^ 
facts which lead us to believe that a future development of 
separate plants would entail much duplication along these lines. 
Eighth: 

It is well known that the present University campus is most 
unfortunately located, standing as it does upon the western edge 
of the city, abutted close by the railroads and agricultural im- 
plement jobbing district, and cornering what is known as the 
Haymarket Square, the smoke, dirt, and noise incidental to the 
traffic that must be carried on there making it a most undesirable 
location for a University plant to be maintained and developed. 
Physical conditions make it impossible for the city to expand 
very much either north or west of the campus, so that the natural 
and only growth of the city is gradually farther and farther away 
from the University, thus necessitating the students living in 
the more congested part of the city or seeking their rooming 
houses at an ever-increasing distance from their class-room. We 
believe that the problem of maintaining and developing a modern 
University with its requirements amid such an environment is 
impossible of solution. 
Ninth: 

The area of the present campus is about ten and one-half 
acres. In addition to this there is an athletic field of a block, 
which cost the state two years ago over forty thousand dollars. 
This block contains about two and one-half acres. 

In the report presented by the majority of the members of 
the Board of Regents, attention is called to the fact that our 
campus is about the size of the original Harvard campus, and 
that the last legislature, by voting money to buy the athletic 
field, endorsed the policy that future extension should be by the 
gradual acquiring of property contiguous to the present campus 
as the growing needs of the University require. We are strongly 
of the opinion that for the state to announce a policy that it will 
gradually acquire land around the present campus as its increas- 
ing needs make it necessary to do so, would be very unwise. It 
is a temptation for people to speculate in advance, knowing that 
some time or another the state is very likely to need the land. 
There is at this time in the office of the Superintendent of Con- 
struction, a framed plan of a proposed extension of the present 



University site, prepared by a leading Boston architect. This 
plan contemplates the dismantling and moving of several of the 
present buildings and the acquiring of the property north of the ath- 
letic field to the railroad tracks, a portion of which is sometimes, 
at certain seasons of the year, inundated with water to a depth 
of several feet, and also the acquiring of the north half of the two 
blocks south of the present campus. The present appraised 
value of this land is $313,000.00. There is also another scheme 
talked of — that of going east on R street and the acquiring of 
several blocks. We find the present appraised value of this 
land to be $760,000.00. Neither of these plans would give the 
University a campus more than thirty acres in extent, and a 
portion of it then would be divided by the public streets. In 
this connection we want most earnestly to call the attention of 
your Excellency and the members of the legislature to the fact 
that at present Harvard University has a campus of one hundred 
acres or more, and that almost every university of distinction in 
our country has found that it is absolutely necessary that abundant 
room be provided for their growing needs. From a careful in- 
vestigation of present property values immediately contiguous 
to the city campus, on the east it would cost about $60,000.00 
per acre, north of the present athletic field $20,000.00 per acre, 
and on the south $40,000.00 per acre. 

Tenth: 

Situated nearly in the center of the laid-out residential part 
of Lincoln and suburbs, the state owns three hundred and twenty 
acres of land called the State Farm, and upon it are buildings 
used in connection with the College and School of Agriculture. 
It is the avowed policy of the Board of Regents, who we think 
are following the wishes of the people of this state, to erect build- 
ings to take care of the rapidly increasing requirements of the 
College of Agriculture. And in the extension of this college, 
if the policy recommended by the major number of this Board, 
namely: to keep all the other colleges of the University upon the 
city campus, is to prevail, much duplication of buildings and 
equipment, operative and administrative, necessarily will have 
to be provided; and from a very careful investigation of this 
question, both from the economic and educational side, we are 
very firmly convinced that it would be most unwise for the state 
to buy any more land near to, or erect any more permanent 
buildings upon, the city campus. 



Eleventh: 

The state could set aside sixty or eighty acres of the Univer- 
sity Farm for a campus site without interfering in any way v/ith 
the value or extent of its experimental work carried on there. 
The location is an ideal one, a splendid water supply and plant 
is owned by the state, and the sewerage and drainage could not 
be better; and in addition, it has railway trackage facilities close 
at hand to its own property. 

Twelfth: 

There is no library building or general library on the State 
Farm, the library there consisting of books which particularly 
refer to agriculture. If any professor or student there wishes to 
avail himself of a general library, he must of necessity make a 
trip to the city campus, which entails a considerable loss of time, 
travel, and some expense. If the Dean or any professor in the 
Agricultural College wishes to consult the Chancellor or any of 
the administrative officers of the University, he must make a 
journey to the down-town campus to do so. It is needless to 
say that this is a great waste of time and expense. The same 
thing is true of the Superintendent of Construction and of Grounds 
and Buildings and his assistants: much of their time could be 
saved by a consolidation of the plants. 

Thirteenth: 

At the present time there is great congestion in the Colleges 
of Arts and Sciences on the city campus, and the same thing is 
true in the Agricultural College and the School of Agriculture 
at the State Farm. If the imperative needs of these depart- 
ments are met and the present policy of separation continues, 
there is absolutely no escape from duplication of buildings and 
equipment. 

Fourteenth : 

Under present conditions at the city campus and also at 
the State Farm, all coal and building material, as well as other 
supplies, have to be hauled by team. The cost to the state last 
year for hauling coal alone, v/as nearly $3,000.00. For every 
building which has to be erected or has recently been erected, 
about 85c per ton is charged for drayage in getting the material 
to the building site. Should the policy of moving to the State 
Farm prevail, trackage facilities can be obtained at a relatively 
small cost, thus saving many thousands of dollars in the erection 
of new buildings and greatly reducing the operative cost of the 
institution. 

10 



Fifteenth : 

From a careful investigation, we find that by the expendi- 
ture of three [times the amount asked for permanent improvements 
by the Board of Regents for this biennium, we could move to 
the State Farm over two-thirds of the student body in the Uni- 
versity, leaving behind only the Engineering, Law, and Medical 
students. To acquire the necessary land in the city for a mod- 
erate-sized campus of thirty acres, if this land were acquired east 
on R street, would cost nearly as much money as would 
build the buildings. 

Sixteenth : 

The Superintendent of Construction has informed the Board 
of Regents that additional facilities and equipment are imper- 
ative for the power and heating plants, both on the farm and city 
campuses. To meet these requirements, more duplication must 
take place, unless our present policy is changed. 

Seventeenth: 

The state has to purchase all of the water that is used on 
the down-town campus from the city. On account of the strong, 
salty character of the water underlying the city campus, it is 
unfit for drinking, laboratory, or boiler uses. The cost of this 
water aggregates a large and increasing amount each year. This 
could be avoided by moving to the State Farm, where the state 
owns a splendid water plant and supply. 

Eighteenth: 

It is v/ell known that in those states where the Agricultural 
College is separated from the main university by a considerable 
distance, it has been found to be a very costly thing to maintain 
them apart; also that it causes considerable friction and public 
feeling which would be unlikely to exist if they were consolidated ; 
and we believe if our present policy continues we should invite 
the same kind of trouble. The State of Minnesota is almost 
identically situated in regard to campuses, the distance between 
its Agricultural College and main University being about the 
same. There is much duplication in the two plants, but for- 
tunately for that state, the financial side does not embarrass it, 
the University having valuable assets in its landed property, but 
they still have their troubles, Vv^hich would not be likely to exist, 
if the plants were together. 

Nineteenth: 

The present valuation of the buildings upon the city campus 

11 



is about $600,000.00, exclusive of what is known as the Temple 
Building. One of these buildings has been condemned by the 
architect as being unsafe, two of the others within a course of a 
few years will have to be dismantled and replaced, at present 
being entirely out of accord with modern hygienic and sanitary 
ideals, and it must be most detrimental to the students to be 
compelled to use them. The library facilities are totally in- 
adequate, and the question of extending the library, building has 
only recently been discussed by the Board. As an objection to 
the consolidation scheme, it has been stated that there would be 
a loss to the state, if it were called upon to relinquish the present 
site and move to the State Farm. We do not believe that there 
would be the loss of a single dollar, but on the other hand, in the 
course of ten or fifteen years, the state would be many thousands 
of dollars into pocket, and besides have a magnificent institution, 
ideally located and operated at a very much less expense than if 
dual institutions are built up and have to be maintained. 

Twentieth: 

During the last few years the attendance at the University 
has rapidly increased and there is every reason to believe that it 
will continue to do so, especially at the Agricultural College, 
for as is well known there has been a wide interest aroused as 
to the special need the state and nation has to develop this branch 
of education. From statistics it has been found that considerably 
over ninety per cent of these graduates return to the land, and 
that there is a great and unsatisfi.ed demand for teachers in agri- 
cultural colleges and high schools. The agricultural colleges in 
every state have a rapidly increasing registration and in our 
state more and more of the students from the School of Agri- 
culture are passing into the College. 

Twenty-first: 

The question of the earnings of needy students has arisen 
in connection with this discussion. From data furnished the 
Board, it is estimated that these earnings aggregate $100,000.00 
per annum, but the same authority for this statement also says 
that if a scheme of consolidation was brought about, there would 
probably be a temporary loss only for two or three years of about 
fifteen per cent of this amount. 

Twenty-second: 

From our own experience and that of other states, it is only 
reasonable to assume that before many years pass, the regis- 

12 



tration for the different colleges in our University will be largely 
increased. We believe the wise thing for the state to do is to 
prepare for this by locating all of its University buildings on a 
campus which it already owns, sufficiently large for development, 
and not to be so foolish as to be driven to acquire land piece by 
piece at extravagant prices in a down-town district, bounded on 
the north by railroad tracks, on the west by jobbing-houses 
and railroads, and on the south by the business portion of the 
city. 

Twenty-third: 

As an evidence of what the future requirements of the colleges 
situated on the down-town campus are likely to be in the near 
future, the Deans of the colleges recently submitted to the Board 
of Regents a statement of these needs, and they aggregated in 
amount about one million and a half dollars. At the same time 
the Dean of the Agricultural College submitted a report of what 
he considered to be the pressing needs of the near future of the 
Agricultural College and School of Agriculture at the State Farm 
and these amounted to over a half million dollars. 

In this connection it may be well to state that about twenty 
years ago Dean Bessey, who was then the acting Chancellor of 
the University, submitted to the Board of Regents a project and 
plans for the moving of the University buildings to the State 
Farm. At that time there were about five hundred students in 
the University. At the present time there are over four thousand, 
including the schools of Agriculture and Music. Dean Bessey 
was foresighted enough at that time to see what the needs of 
the institution in the course of a few years were likely to be, and 
today he says most emphatically that some day or another, the 
state will be compelled to move the University from the present 
location, and it would be a wise thing to do it now. We cannot 
forbear asking the question: Is it wise for the state to longer 
delay doing this, and by such delay only make the consolidation 
scheme more expensive and difficult? 

Twenty-fourth: 

The conclusions and opinions we have arrived at, and which 
we have endeavored to set forth in this report, have been con- 
firmed in a very marked manner by visits which we have made to 
other colleges and universities, and from personal interviews 
and correspondence with educators at the head of state univer- 
sities and agricultural colleges, who have both expressed verbally 

13 



their personal opinion, and written it, saying that it is certainly- 
cheaper for a state to consolidate all the colleges of its university 
upon one campus; also that it is detrimental to the best interests 
of the Agricultural College student for him to be deprived of the 
benefits that would naturally come to him if he were permitted 
to associate with the larger life of the University; further, that 
it is a great benefit to the students of other colleges than that of 
agriculture to have the presence of agricultural students on the 
same campus. 

We here give a few opinions from men who are recognized 
as educational leaders: 

Dean Bailey of the College of Agriculture of Cornell Uni- 
versity says: 

''To students of equal standing in the College of Agriculture 
and other departments of the University, the advantages to the 
agricultural student body from association are very great in 
many ways. There is every reason why an agricultural student 
or any other student should be a part of the great republic of 
educated men and women. 

"I should think that an agricultural student who is a part of 
a general university student body would, other things being 
equal, turn out to be a more broadly educated man than one who 
is isolated. It is worth while also for a student in future life to 
feel that he is a part of a general rather than a special student 
body. The advantages to a University of having agricultural 
students in it are also very great. If the above points are well 
taken, then it follows that a separation of the College of Agri- 
culture and the University under one board of control would be 
objectionable. 

* 'While I would not give any advice for the University of 
Nebraska, it has always seemed to me, as I have visited the in- 
stitution, that it must eventually move out of the city, or else be 
very much handicapped in its development. In the future the 
Universities will need much more land for outdoor laboratories 
than they think they need now. This will be particularly true 
of all the biological sciences. The campus at Cornell University 
is some three hundred acres or more, and we think that it is not 
large enough yet." 

Dean Russell of the College of Agriculture of the University 
of Wisconsin says: 

"We feel that it is highly advantageous to have our agri- 

14 



culture students come in contact with students in other lines 
than those in which they are primarily interested. 

"I feel from the standpoint not only of economy to the state, 
but solidarity to the institution, that it is greatly to be preferred 
to have all the colleges in the University consolidated if possible 
on one campus. I should think from the standpoint of the future 
of the institution, that it would be very much better for the 
University to be moved out to the Agricultural College and thus 
given opportunity for expansion." 

Dean Davenport of the College of Agriculture of the Uni- 
versity of Illinois, who, in company with eight other gentlemen, 
was delegated to visit our institution, as well as others, writes: 

"The advantages to agriculture students of the larger con- 
tact with students outside their own particular college, I think 
are many; mainly, it broadens their vision and adds not only to 
their outlook but to their stock of knowledge. A good deal we 
get in the world we derive by absorption, and if the student lives 
in a cosmopolitan atmosphere during the college course, it does 
not lessen what he learns, but it does enrich its application and 
significance. Second, I think that any separation between the agri- 
cultural and the other interests of the University is disadvan- 
tageous to both parties. The agricultural interests need the 
other interests of the institution and the University as a whole 
needs the modifying and vitalizing influence of the agricultural 
body. 

"Third, I think it is cheaper for the state to consolidate all 
of its colleges on one campus. It avoids duplication of plants 
and saves much time, both of instructors and students. 

"Fourth, I think that the result of our trip to eight institu- 
tions would thoroughly warrant the opinion that your problem 
of building a state university on fourteen acres of ground is im- 
possible of solution. The very physical plant that is bound to 
be required for a modern state university cannot find a resting 
place on that space, unless it be built up like a solid city business 
block. If any one fact impressed itself upon our committee, it 
was that the state university needs space and then more space." 

President A. Ross Hill of the University of Missouri says: 

"Our agricultural students are thrown in contact with 
students from all other departments in the class-rooms of biology, 
chemistry, English, et cetera, and only their special work in 
agriculture is a block removed from the main campus. I am 
reminded at this moment that the chairman of our student 



15 



senate, a body that relieves the faculty for the most part of the 
problems of discipline among the men students of the University, 
is a student in the College of Agriculture, and that the chairman 
of the mass meeting this year is also a student of agriculture. 

"When the requirements for admission to the college of agri- 
culture here were lower than the other colleges, the students in 
agriculture were looked down upon to some extent and were 
known as 'aggies'. Now that the requirements for entrance 
to the college of agriculture are the same as the requirements for 
entrance to the colleges of Arts and Science, the students in that 
college are as strong as other students in the University and have 
taken a more dignified position in the student body and are known 
as *farmers\ It is certainly cheaper for a state to consolidate 
the departments of its university on one campus." 

The following is taken from a letter written by one of the 
brightest students we have in the College of Agriculture: 

''I think it would benefit the College of Agriculture by in- 
creasing the attendance for reasons above mentioned, and by 
making it more convenient for them. At the present time it is 
quite inconvenient to take a regular course in the College of 
Agriculture, because the classes held down on the city campus 
conflict with those held out at the Farm, because it takes more 
than ten minutes to go from one place to the other. 

"Then this college would be also benefitted because it would 
be recognized more by the other departments, because the at- 
tendance would be greater and the people would be in closer 
touch with it and realize its importance more. 

"The consolidation of the University would certainly not 
retard the progress of the other colleges, because every one would 
appreciate the large, roomy campus outside of the smoke and 
noise of the city. 

"For these reasons I think the consolidation of the University 
out at the State Farm campus would raise the standards of the 
University and especially promote the education along agri- 
cultural lines, which is very essential in such a great agricultural 
state as Nebraska." 

We might here add that this young man is the owner of several 
hundred acres of Nebraska land, and has already spent five years 
in the School of Agriculture and the Agricultural College to fit 
himself to operate this land. 

In conclusion we wish to say to your Excellency and through 
you to the legislature, that we feel a great burden of respon- 

16 



sibility in thus presenting this question to you and them. It 
is a most important one to the state, economically and education- 
ally. The University is the people's school and they have the 
right to say what policy shall obtain, as to whether it shall be 
built and operated on the lines we suggest, or whether the opinion 
of the majority of the Board of Regents shall fasten upon the 
state a policy which we believe to be unwise, from an economic and 
educational standpoint, and absolutely to the detriment of the 
agricultural student, to whom we must look to help solve the 
problems connected with the soil and rural life. 

Therefore we are of the opinion that the present legislature 
should define the future policy of the state in regard to the Uni- 
versity's development to be that no more permanent buildings 
be erected on the down-town campus, but that all future ex- 
penditures should be for buildings to be put on the State Farm, 
with a view to building up a consolidated institution there. 

When large cities are willing to tax themselves heavily for 
civic beauty, realizing that a beautiful city is a paying asset, 
we believe that in housing a noble University like ours we can 
well afford to follow in the footsteps of the other great Univer- 
sities of the country in providing a suitable, dignified, artistic, 
and spacious campus, arranged on a general plan, sufficient for 
the present needs and the future growth of the University. 

George Coupland. 
F. L. Haller. 
Regents of the University of Nebraska. 



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